Search form

Volleyball Falls to #5 USC, 3-1

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - Washington State volleyball certainly didn't make it easy for the No. 5 USC Women of Troy, Saturday night at the Lyon Center on the USC campus. Down 2-0 and trailing in game three, the Cougars stretched the Women of Troy to four games before succumbing with scores of 30-23, 30-19, 27-30, 30-24, in Pacific-10 volleyball action.

The loss dropped the Cougars to 13-10 overall and 7-8 in the Pac-10. USC improved to 17-2 overall and 11-1 and tied with Stanford for first place in the conference.

'I am very proud with the way our kids played tonight,' said WSU Head Coach Cindy Fredrick. 'USC is an outstanding team, one of the best, most well-balanced teams in the country. Overall, I am not unhappy with the way we played.'

The Cougars were unable to overcome the play of USC's April Ross, who recorded a match-high 23 kills with only 4 errors for a .442 hitting percentage. For the match USC hit at a .341 clip.

The Cougars were led by LaToya Harris' 16 kills, which led a contingent of four players that reached double figures in kills for WSU. Harris recorded her second straight double-double as she added 11 digs, joining Kali Surplus and Kortney Jamtaas who also tallied 11 digs.

In the third game, the Cougars found themselves down in an early 7-2 hole but rallied to tie the game at nine. USC fought back to take a 22-17 advantage but WSU went on an 8-0 run to take a lead it would never relinquish at 25-22 en route to capturing the game 30-27.

WSU hit only .163 in the third game but that was better than USC's .140, down from its .444 and .459 hitting percentage in games one and two, respectively.

WSU seemed to ride the momentum into game four, taking a quick 4-1 lead. The Cougars fought on even terms throughout the first part of the game until, when trailing 15-14, USC ran off five consecutive points to take a 20-14 lead on its way to capturing the game 30-24.

USC started off hot in the first game, jumping out to an 11-4 advantage. At one point in that 15-point stretch, WSU was hitting at a -.091 clip in comparison to the Women of Troy's .750 percentage. The Cougars rebounded to cut the Women of Troy's lead to three on four separate occasions with the last being at 24-21. At that point, USC shut the door by scoring six of the last eight points to capture the game.

The second game started off as a tight affair that featured 12 ties during the first 26 points of the game. With the Cougars holding a 13-12 lead, USC caught fire, scoring 18 of the game's final 24 points. On only one occasion in the second game were the Cougars able to put together a string of consecutive points.

The Cougars return to Pullman for their final two home matches of the regular season, Nov. 9, against Arizona State and Nov. 10, against Arizona. Both matches begin at 7 p.m. in Bohler Gym.